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If you don’t mind soiling your hands by participating in a marketing scheme, you could win a chance to play Spy Mouse before the rest of the world does. Firemint and EA have kicked off a ‘contest’ for the long-awaited title, offering copies of Spy Mouse, Dead Space [$6.99 / HD], Real Racing 2 [$4.99 / HD], and The Sims 3 [$.99] as door prizes for discovering the answers to clues posted to this page once a day until August 26.

If you answer the clue correctly, you’ll be entered into a pool to win any of those games. If you so choose to tweet the fact that you’ve solved the clue on the appropriate page, you’ll apparently “double” your chance of winning. Also, for every 100 Facebook “Likes” the game’s page drums up, another winner will be picked for that day. The competition page is located here, while the clue page is here.

TUAW suggests that you use a side-Twitter account to do all of this, and that strikes us as sound advice. Unless, of course, your followers really want to know about Spy Mouse. Chances are, though, they’re more concerned with what you ate this morning and how your commute went. Just saying.

[Via TUAW]

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We had nothing to go on when EA announced its intentions to port Bullfrog’s theme park simulation game, Theme Park, other than “Hey, a Theme Park game is happening.” As usual, the big ticket marketing machine over at the publisher covered up some of the holes at an event. Earlier this week, EA debuted the title at gamescom in Cologne, Germany, revealing that it’s a full re-make of the original game, complete with a new payment model, new look, new mechanics, and new rides involving EA franchises like Mass Effect and, somehow, even Dragon Age.

Digital Spy grabbed the first image we’ve seen on the Internet, and also had a few specific details. Take this one for example: not only will you be able to build your theme park with in-game money, but you’ll also be able to purchase more in-game money with real-life money. Also, the rides you build will apparently be interactive; the report cites being able to move around pirate ships or prod air-filled castles. I have a feeling the interaction will be strictly limited to basic animations, but hey, I guess we won’t know until we see a full build in some shape or form.

Speaking of builds, the game won’t see a final release until this holiday, but it’ll come with all that fancy Origin stuff we heard about earlier this year. Right now, it’s slated to hit a $0, which makes us think that the F2P stuff is going to roll a lot deeper than in-game currency.

[Via Digital Spy, @robfunnell7]

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Chillingo sure knows how to be timely. Their newest game, Conan: Tower of the Elephant [$1.99], was slated to come out around the same time as the 2011 film remake, which means that they hope lots of people will stroll out of the theatre feeling all barbarian-like and search the App store to find this game. I have to hand it them though, giving a nod to one of the original Conan the Cimmerian stories with the title and storyline was a nice touch.

Like the original Robert E. Howard short story it is based on, Tower of the Elephant sees Conan setting his sights on a great tower in order to steal a precious gem from a demon sorcerer named Yara. Using comic-inspired cutscenes to illustrate story arcs and top down gameplay in order to complete quests, the game offers an attractive presentation and makes it pretty easy to slip into the world of Arenjun.

A simple tutorial opens the game, teaching you how to interact, attack and manage your inventory. Controls are basic, with a d-pad for movement on the bottom left and a large circle for attacks on the lower right. I found that the d-pad was sometimes unresponsive for a moment after an event where I talked to someone, but for the most part it was accurate.

When it came to battle, attacking and defending were both available, but I found that hacking away at my enemies was the most effective method of taking them out. Well, they don't call these games "hack and slash" for nothing (although when it comes to fighting bosses, that defend button will be much more useful). You also have a bar that fills up as you fight and allows you to pump up your attack for a short amount of time when you need it — really handy for when you get jumped by a gang of grubby thieves who are dumb enough to think taking on a barbarian is a good idea.

A lovely, hand-drawn world map is available in the menu to show you your way as you explore these lands, along with a menu to keep track of your quests and inventory. These interfaces are really pleasant and I enjoyed using them. Seeing at a glance how to find a merchant or the location of a treasure chest made the game easy to navigate. In addition, whenever Conan gets a major quest, a small arrow will appear before his feet that shows you where to go. One of my biggest pet peeves is wandering around a world map with no idea where I'm going, so I appreciated this bit of attention to detail.

Of course, there are fetch quests as well, but I found that the story and gameplay was streamlined in such a way that I actually enjoyed even doing something as simple as going to collect a copper pipe or take out a band of thieves. Everything in the game is executed well and caters to making the player comfortable while experiencing the game universe, and it really shows in the final product. Even purchasing new items and armor was easy, giving single options rather than a huge list of things to choose from and stats to compare. Some gamers who enjoy that process will not like this. For me, it took away a step that would normally distract me in an iOS action title and allowed me to get back to the gameplay.

Also compatible with Game Center, you can watch achievements pop up as you play. Tower of the Elephant also offers access to a service called Crystal, which offers perks such as profile customization, sharing game results on Twitter and Facebook, and inviting friends to play the game. You can sign up for Crystal within the game as well, which was cool to me — I hate having to surf to some other website on my phone to do that type of thing.

You won't do anything wildly new in Tower of the Elephant, but what you can do is enjoy some good old fashioned gameplay where you kick butt and take names, enjoy quests, and rack up achievements for it. What could have been a boring movie tie-in turned out to be a solidly enjoyable entry in Chillingo's action library. If you're in the mood to kill stuff and feel like a badass, Tower of the Elephant is a winner.

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I’d imagine it’s gut-wrenchingly frustrating when a Flash game creator discovers that one of his game's ideas, mechanics, or even overall aesthetic has been cribbed by another party and then monetized on the App Store without his permission. Most notably in media circles, it happened with Halfbot and its fantastic title, The Blocks Cometh [$.99], and it’s possibly happening right now to Andrew Moorish, the creator of Super Puzzle Platformer. In a strange twist, various games web sites are reporting that the 'company' that made a victim of Halfbot is also the same one responsible for this specific and supposed theft.

The game Moorish claims is cribbing his title is I Hate Puzzle [$.99]. DIY Gamer reports that the games are, basically, mechanically the same. As you’ll see, they also definitely resemble each other in a profound way. In the following image Moorish tweeted, the game on the left is Super Puzzle Platformer, while the one on the right is I Hate Puzzle. Take note of  how the assets are flip-flopped or toned down between these two titles:

The developer listed on I Hate Puzzle is Domi Games, the same house that, according to a GameFront report, lifted the Flash game Tiny Hawk in the past. According to the reporting in that specific article, Domi Games is a new name for Edison Game, the company that started The Blocks Cometh brouhaha.

There’s a lot of loose ends here, but it strikes us as odd — provided these theft reports are indeed accurate — that Domi Games is still allowed to distribute on the App Store. On a platform as closed as this one is, you’d figure something like a ban from Apple wouldn’t be out of the question. I wonder how this will shake out.

[Via GameSetWatch, DIY Gamer, @int_main, and Gamefront]

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While Nintendo hilariously won’t admit that its struggling Nintendo 3DS is competing against the mobile market in addition to the traditional handheld one, Sony made it clear this afternoon that phones are the PS Vita’s biggest and stiffest competition. How? By confirming tons of support that is typically reserved for phones. Twitter, Skype, Foursquare, Facebook, and Internet browsing will be available as tack-on apps on the PS Vita at launch. Also, the publisher is planning to put every single game that comes to the Wi-Fi and 3G-enabled platform up for download.

This news comes on the heels of news that Sony was loaning PS Vita dev kits to indie devs, which for us at least, indicates that its serious about courting the same kinds of developers that flourish on the App Store.

Provided pricing stays at sane levels, PSN on the Vita seems like it has the potential to be a really interesting platform in the future. I mean, imagine downloading an Uncharted game for the same price as, say, a Final Fantasy Tactics [$15.99]. That would be competitive, which is a word that we never use when discussing Nintendo’s troubled e-Shop.

But, to be clear, that’s just tinfoil speculation —- our collective, TIME-award winning guts are pretty convinced that even the downloads of retail, package games will continue to sit at retail, package prices. To be fair, though, PSN is definitely the most flexible of the three big platforms, so anything is possible.

We’ll keep our eyes on the $250 PS Vita as its 2012 launch creeps ever closer. The gamer side of me really wants it to succeed, but man, it’s going to one heck of a climb to the top — if it's even possible for it to get there anymore.

[Via 1UP]

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In this week’s bonus edition of The TouchArcade Show, I do my best not to embarrass Eli in front of Unity CEO David Helgason. Helgason walks us through the formation of Unity, how it operates currently as a powerhouse engine company, and gives us a glimpse into the future of the engine across every platform, not just iOS. If you’re into the nuts and bolts, or just want to know a little bit more about the engine that powers just about every game you play, this is definitely the show for you.

As usual, you can listen by streaming or downloading the podcast just below. If you’re into subscriptions, we encourage you to grab us on iTunes and the Zune Marketplace. Feel free to shoot us a glowing review or three while you’re at it, too.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-Bonus-009.mp3, 20MB

This week’s interstitial music is once again from Overclocked Remix. The re-mixer we’ve went with this week is the awesome always “Maze Dude.” Here’s the two tracks:

• Doom II: Hell On Earth – "Barrels 'O Fun"
• Doom II: Hell On Earth – "Gothic Sandy"

If you want to get in touch with us, you can do so via the Internet! Our e-mail inbox is podcast@toucharcade.com, and you can catch us on the Twitters and the Facebooks. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you a little later this week.

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Earlier this July, League of Evil [Free] creator Ravenous Games bumped the price of League of Evil back to its normal-ish tag of $1.99. The studio has once again fiddled with the price, though I’d imagine the new one won’t be the cause of too many e-groans. For the next 24 hours the game is $0. Free, guys! Free!

For those of you not in the know, League of Evil is the App Store’s rough equivalent of Team Meat’s imaginative, but sadistic action platform game Super Meat Boy. Boasting tons of levels, an fantastic lo-fi presentation, and a lot of challenge, League of Evil was an easy recommendation for us to make. At this price, it’s sorta a steal.

We contacted Ravenous on the Twitters to hear exactly why it decided to cut the cost of the game. I mean, who knows? Ravenous could be celebrating a staffers’ birthday over there and if so, we want in on the back-slapping and cake. In the meanwhile, though, I guess we'll accept the free game.

UPDATE: Shucks, looks like it's just a chart move. "We are just looking to get some more exposure," Ravenous told me via Twitter. "Indies are getting buried when lacking marketing even though the game is good!"

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Trainyard [$.99 / Free]creator Matt Rix is working on a new update to Trainyard. Over the weekend, Rix was posting images of an upcoming level editor that will be included in an update dubbed the “Engineer Update.” From the images we’ve seen so far, we can tell that you’ll be able to create and share your own user-created puzzles, as well as download others’ creations. It appears as if there will also be some sort of ratings feature, too, as a promotional “Features” button figures prominently on this piece of UI in particular.

You could already share your Trainyard experience from the get-go by uploading videos to the game’s official Web site. This, I suppose, is sort of a natural evolution of that side of the puzzle game’s experience. In our review in particular, we lauded this additional element, but sadly, we haven’t seen many games attempt to do the same thing.

Trainyard, by the way, is a wicked awesome game. If you’re in the mood for a laid-back puzzle title, check it out. We don’t think you’ll leave disappointed.

[Via @MattRix]

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Are you the kind of person who has such an extreme affinity to retro gaming that you've let your lust for games like Pac-Man and Galaga invade every aspect of your life, but you've often found yourself disappointed that they haven't taken over your social media feeds? Well, Namco has the answer for you, and it's not part of a twelve step program– It's PAC'N TWIT [Free]. This free Twitter client does what most Twitter clients do in that it allows you to view your timeline, replies, direct messages, and all that jazz. It even has push notifications, which I was more than a little surprised to see implemented.

PAC'N TWIT also has some strange mini game integration. You can spin a roulette wheel based on the number of tweets you've posted, and winning rewards a puzzle piece to a… iPhone wallpaper. Each skin has its own associated wallpaper to unlock, and apparently aside from the two included Pac-Man skins and two included Galaga skins there are more on their way via updates.

It seems weird for Namco to dedicate resources to developing and releasing a Twitter client, but it was also pretty weird for Taito to release a whole mess of utilities like Space Invaders Calculator [99¢]. Myself, I'm a fan of Tweetbot [$2.99], although I suppose the one drawback that it has is a significant comparative lack of retro game skins.

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